Month: June 2014

Back to the Grind

/ Eli Kale / Leave a comment

Friends

The material for “Unguarded” (Book Two) is developing nicely. After a weekend of rest and relaxation, it feels great getting back to work on my writing projects! If you’re an author and tend not to take breaks from your work, I strongly encourage you to give it a try. I understand the demands of deadlines and whatnot, but giving your mind a break from the constant flow of ideas and pressures of work will actually help make your project a better story!

There is so much I want to tell you regarding my next book, but I must keep it to myself for now. I am very excited to see where this next book takes me, and to see what more I will learn in the process.

That’s something else that you must do as a writer: be open and willing to learn along the way. It is very much a part of our nature as people to think we can handle a lot of what goes into creating something without being open to learning about what it is we’re creating! Writing is a very dynamic art. Words are written, thoughts change, and thus words are changed. This is a recurring process, and it should be. The first draft of a story shouldn’t be it’s final draft.

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Part of that process of changing words, thoughts, sections of the text, and so on is being open to new ideas and creativity. In my case, I have a history degree but that in no way means that I’ll know every fact and figure that I want to use in my book. I check and cross-check my information as I write. And that’s just content.

By “be open and learn along the way” I also mean that it is important for an author to understand how her/his industry works and where she/he belongs in it. Trying to navigate one’s way alone through the world of publishing, especially self-publishing, can be a daunting and almost impossible task. My advice? Ask questions.

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I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “The only stupid question is one that is not asked,” which mostly comes from the classroom, stemming from students’ fear of being embarrassed by asking something they believe ALL the other students know. Well, whether all the other authors in the world know the answer to a question brewing in your mind, it is still vital that you ask it. Whether you’re querying a friend, a publisher, or even another author…ASK your question.

That is all I have for write now (you see what I did there). I felt like having a more “stream of consciousness” kind of blog today rather than something more systematic. I hope you found something in it that you can apply to your own work, even if you’re not an author.

If you haven’t already, please check out my 4-star debut book, “Resistant,” which can be found on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, WaveCloud, the Apple iBookstore, and Google Play. And if you do decide to purchase it, I ask that you please review and/or rate it after you’ve finished. Those reviews and ratings really help me out!

Until next time,

-Eli

Book Two Begins

/ Eli Kale / Leave a comment

Friends,

Today is the first day of writing for Book Two in the Faces of the War collection. Before my wedding in May, I had roughly planned out the storyline for the book, but today I begin getting into the meat of the writing process. It is definitely an exciting moment!

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If you’re new to this blog and haven’t been up-to-date on my work, here is a link to my first book on Amazon, where you can preview the first pages for free: “Resistant”

The second book in the collection, entitled “Unguarded,” is the next biggest project I’m working on. I am also currently in the process of releasing a three-title collection of short stories early this autumn, entitled “The Short Story Collection: Volume 1” by Eli Kale. I mentioned this in the previous blog post, but I’ll restate it here: these short story projects will help keep my writing fresh and give me opportunities to write about things not related to the content of my novella collection. Keep an eye out for Volume 1 come this fall!

So far, “Resistant” has received good reviews! You can give them a quick look on Goodreads. Reviews and ratings really help the book become known, so please leave a review and/or a rating if you do pick it up. I can’t give you too many details on Book Two, other than the title and that work has begun. I would really love to tell you about the story, but it’s too early for that right now. I am responding to some of the reviews I’ve read, adjusting my method for this next book. I hope I can make it better than the first!

If you’re new to my blog entirely and like what you see, take a hop, skip, and a jump on over to my social media profiles and other sites:

Twitter

Facebook

The Independent Author Network

Book Viral

Even if the story doesn’t strike your fancy, please pass the word along to a friend!

I look forward to moving ahead in this process yet again, and to informing you about my progress.

-Eli

I’m Home!

/ Eli Kale / Leave a comment

Friends,

How good it is to be back in the United States! If you were not aware, I recently got married and went on a honeymoon to Italy. That’s why I’ve been absent from my work for a while.

I had finished my debut book, Resistant, in late-April and had both print and ebook versions of my book on the shelves by the time I was married in late-May. I decided to treat my wedding and honeymoon as a natural break from my work, and to continue on with new projects upon returning home. If you haven’t gotten the chance to check out my book, you can see it on Amazon here.

That’s also what I wanted to briefly discuss in today’s blog–the aforementioned new projects. As you can already tell by the title and subtitle of my first book, there are more books to come in the “Faces of the War” collection, a grouping of WW2 stories told from different perspectives. I am also working on short stories. My goal is to get back to writing on both projects between now and next Monday. I will finish the short stories and get those published through Amazon KDP by (hopefully) the beginning of August. I will then continue working into the autumn on the second book in the “Faces of the War” collection. More details regarding that book will be revealed in the coming months.

I really enjoyed creating the first book, and I truly hope to find that same enjoyment as I continue. I got to read the book’s first reviews last week, and seeing what others think of my work is very gratifying and humbling. And reviews are what are needed to help further boost my book, so if you are thinking of reading my work (or perhaps you already have), I’d greatly appreciate a review and rating from you. You can do it through whatever site from which you purchased the book, or through Amazon (my primary “shelf”). Also, please check out my social media pages, like Twitter and Facebook.

Thank you for all the support and encouragement thus far in the process. I am really looking forward to continue writing, as it is a passion of mine. Please pass the word along to a friend…you never know who else you’ll run into who will like reading the books you do!

-Eli